UNLIMITED SPEED

“You okay?” Noah asked Erolia, understanding that her grip on his arms had loosened a bit before regaining its tightness.

“Yes, yes,” she replied, a tad bit embarrassed. Noah nodded and they moved forward, hovering close to the uneven ceiling of that underground expanse.

“I sense a weird mana. It’s clearer now,” Erolia revealed her findings, struggling to not let her face twist in repulsion.

That place not only looked repulsive but also gave off an irritating aura only to her instincts. The air within that expanse remained bad to the taste, so they opted on holding their breath. Tier 4’s could hold their breaths for hours.

“Follow their trail,” Noah commanded, speaking about the grotesque creates that filled the walkable surface of the expanse. They all marched in one direction and the more they went toward that direction the denser the aura got.

Their slow flight towards what would be considered the central point of the expanse revealed just how vast that underground expanse was.

They encountered huge tunnels stretching towards different regions beneath the city. Rivers of that green liquid filled those tunnels and soon Erolia became overwhelmed. 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘭．𝘦𝘵

“Master…” she called out, closing her eyes in struggle. “Something’s trying to take over my mind… it calls me… towards the center.” Her voice shook and her aura flickered dangerously.

Her grip on Noah’s arm loosened and Noah had to create a platform of wind.

“Master…” She let go of him, but he stood. Erolia arched her head backward as a scream erupted out of her mouth and her cerulean eyes gained a green glow.

Noah watched her struggle but didn’t move to assist her just yet. Her figure shook violently while remaining afloat and her power flowed out of her figure causing a strange gust of wind to manifest around them.

Noah felt her aura grow thin whilst whatever fought with her conscious mind continued to push.

[[Will you not help?]] Even the system had to chip in. Erolia was now connected with it thanks to Noah’s connection, so the system could sense her mind falling under foreign control.

“Is there anything you can do? Like a de-buff of some sort?” Noah asked.

[[I can, but it’ll only be temporary… and you have to approve it]]

[Do you wish to assist Entity <Erolia>[Thunderbird] in destroying mind-control activity?]

Noah nodded and immediately watched that silver screen disappear. In mere seconds, a cerulean light shone forth from Erolia’s figure and she immediately stopped struggling, to look at Noah in shock.

“Mas… Noah!?” Her cerulean eyes flashed with confusion.

“Yes… What did you see? You were under some sort of trance,” Noah spoke, wondering if she had forgotten.

“I remember…” Erolua responded, even if her tone fell silent.

“What did you see?” Noah asked again and she focused on his figure.

“A strange masculine figure… I couldn’t see his face but his voice called unto me and the world was filled with those creatures, chanting one name…” She paused as if stunned.

“What?” Noah asked interested in whatever was going on.

“I can’t recall the name. It’s there.. but I seem unable to access it,” Her multicolored eyebrows creased in struggle.

“An effect capable of affecting even a tier-four mind…” Noah muttered, telling her not to worry about remembering the name.

“You’re not affected…” Erolia commented.

“Yes… but I believe it has nothing to do with my power. Maybe because of my new race,” Noah considered that option and could not but find it suitable.

Erolia wasn’t exactly too far from him in terms of might. Yet he had remained unaffected while she had found that ability affecting her.

“I essentially function on a wavelength nothing on Cregar can match up to,” Noah explained comparing that situation to how a dog whistle could only be audible to a dog’s ear due to the sound of the whistle vibrating at a frequency only the ears of dogs could interpret.

“Then does that mean only magical beasts are affected?” Erolia asked. “If so why aren’t all of them in the city simply rushing towards this area?”

“I believe whoever is in charge has not made the intensity of this place reach the upper layers of the city,” Noah explained. “I sense that tier-five magic is at work.”

Erolia gasped then the cerulean light that filled her eyes flickered with a green hue again.

“This short?” Noah spoke addressing the system and also analyzing their situation.

Erolia placed both of her hands on her ears as if trying to block out sounds.

“Master… the call has gotten louder. They can sense that I’m different… I’m strong.” Her struggle could not be more evident.

Noah shook his head asking the system to rid her of the influence and she immediately returned to normal, but now looked tired.

“Their attacks are getting stronger,” Erolia revealed, frowning. She didn’t want to go through it again. It hurt her.

Unlike normal humans, Erolia had stopped possessing a proper soul island. She had a soul core, but because her soul had only integrated with a magical beast’s body there were certain abilities she had lost that were traditional to humans at that level.

One such ability would be her Inability to unfold or even generate mental waves, leaving her stuck to relying on her eyes or her instincts. Thankfully her instincts had been amplified by the speed essence and were almost on par with Noah’s.

She could sense presences from far away.

However, similar to the mental waves she could voice a high-pitched noise inaudible to the human ear. Whatever those sound waves touched and bounced off of would become visible to her through an organ in her head attached to the back of her brain.

This organ received that information and produced colorless images, but thanks to her speed essence being at play it could grant her certain shades depending on what they hit. Humans appeared deep blue to her.

“I’m sorry but I’ll have to let it occur a third time,” Noah explained and her hands dropped in defeat. She did not protest, however, understanding that Noah would never let her get too injured.

As though waiting for those words, the voices she heard returned with an intensity that made her soul core tremble violently, its gold, cerulean, white, and silver lights flickering on and off as that influence moved to shut down her conscious mind.

Pain reached Erolia’s consciousness as blood trickled out of her nose whilst she struggled with the powerful green light beginning to manifest in the cerulean environment that held her golden bird-shaped soul core.

Whenever she transformed into her human form her soul core took the shape of her beast form and vice versa.

Erolia felt her grip begin to slip and she saw the greenness being to manifest as a cage she could not defy.

Ominous deep-green light washed over the empty cerulean environment and a proper cage fell on her bird-shaped soul core.

Whatever was occurring was working, rapidly at that since Noah saw that she struggled to maintain her human form.

He moved at that point, unfolding and condensing his mental waves and aura to create an area overflowing with his presence.

This event created a silver sphere close to the ceiling of that vast expanse.

Erolia felt a wave of relief hit her at that point as the voices were severed from her reach and she could open her eyes to look at Noah.

“You’ve done well,” Noah announced, patting her head. His manifest presence took away her pain.

Their moment of peace would not last too long since the world around them suddenly shook with severe violence.

Noah could not see what happened on the outside due to his condensed mental waves, but thick pulsating green lines emerged from the rocky ceiling and the very ponds and rivers below them gave birth to hundreds of small green serpents that circled and swarmed the silver sphere floating in that domain.

The vine-like lines pushing forth from the ceiling stretched forward to make contact with Noah’s mental waves.

The moment both energies were in contact a tremor shook Noah’s figure and a shock wave expanded from the sphere, blowing those green serpents into nothingness.

The green vine-like line that had touched his condensed mental waves exploded into droplets of that green liquid. And a crack unfolded in Noah’s condensed mental waves before it shattered to reveal the duo.

Erolia remained fine, she had been untouched by the whole event, but Noah on the other hand had his right palm on his left eye. His back arched slightly.

He held onto his face with such intensity it worried Erolia.

“Do not fear,” Noah assured, suddenly relaxing. He let his hand come off his left eye revealing the changes that had occurred.

“Master?…” Erolia took a step back, gazing cautiously at Noah’s blazing green eye. He blinked, however, and that color vanished like it was never there.

“I have an idea of what’s going on here,” Noah revealed.